Page 62 of Dark Company

Shelter is found in the morning.

In the burning suns that warm your skin,

In the haunting moon as it guides your path,

All along the dusty road.

I claw through the dense fog of unconsciousness, needing to find the source of that sound. It can’t be in my head. It doesn’t sound the same. It’s not so far away.

My love, my love, don’t cry.

Salvation comes on the wing of the yungrins,

On the horns and hooves of the springbok

On the scales of the crounterads.

It’s as if I can reach out and touch them. The voice is in my ear, surrounding my head. Am I dying? Is that why I’m in so much pain? It claws at my insides, slithers through my body as it converges to the mark on my shoulder.

My love, my love, don’t cry.

My face will see you in the dawn,

In the rising of the suns,

In the shifting of the moons.

Are they removing the bond? Is that the agony I feel? I long to cry out, to beg them to stop. As much as I didn’t want Altris marking me, I can’t imagine my life without the bond deep inside. True, it hurts more than anything at times, but in the moments where it doesn’t, I no longer feel alone. As long as I have that bond, there will always be someone who won’t leave me, won’t abandon me.

My love, my love, don’t cry.

I will forever be with you,

By your side,

For all eternity,

Until Ilaria guides you home.

At the end of the song, my eyes flutter open, but not enough to really let me see. Shafts of dimmed light accost my senses, but still, I cannot make out the person singing. Perhaps it is in my mind after all. Fresh tears gather at my eyes as my heart aches and splits apart.

The pain is so much more than the agony racking across my body. It’s as if my entire life converged on this moment and, once more, it got yanked away. Everything was there. It was at my fingertips. My mother was there, singing to me, calling out for me to join her. And now, she’s back to where she belongs—in the recesses of my memories.

“Welcome home, Karis.”

My body lurches towards the sound as I try to open my eyes again. A figure sits next to me, her soft face swimming in and out of view. It’s so familiar. So, so familiar. As my vision clears, her face comes into focus. It’s as if she’s stepped out of my brain and into real life.

“Mother?”

The woman smiles down at me, her white teeth almost blending in with her pale skin. “No, my child. I am Ignatium. I am your aunt.”

I pull back and sit up, ignoring the wrenching pain in my shoulder and the spinning of my head. “My aunt?”

“Yes. I am your mother’s twin sister.” She looks down at the bedcover and picks at the design for a few moments before looking back up, tears staining her cheeks. “I am so sorry about your mother. I wanted to come get you, to tell you and Annora both that you were not alone, but I couldn’t. Not with your father still alive.”

My heart stops at her words. “You’re wrong. He died with my mother. Annora -. She…” Did she lie about this too? Did she somehow keep my father from me as well?

The anger that started to leach out before comes slamming back in, filling my being with rage. In kind, I feel the bond writhing inside me, as if my fury is causing Altris pain. Pulling back, I try to breathe, letting my anger turn to ash instead of burning brightly inside.